THE MANTRA PROJECT: ASSESSING SUCCESS THROUGH CITIZENS ENGAGEMENT

I sometimes feel many people working in International Development are ignorant when it comes to assessing what success looks like in Anti-Corruption interventions. This is understandable, as the challenge of tackling corruption may seem insurmountable in contexts where governance remains poor; systems are broken, and society largely conditioned to think that nothing can be done to stop public funds being stolen by corrupt officials. In judging the success of Anti-Corruption interventions, it is important to hear directly from beneficiaries to form a credible opinion about what has worked, or not. This means closely engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, rather than standing back and measuring impact by sanctions imposed e.g. the number of prosecutions, which was the metric when I first started working on Anti-Corruption programmes over 10 years ago. It is impossible to draw evidence of success simply from narrative reports about formal institutional processes. For corrupt individuals the benefits far outweigh the risk of incarceration, so prosecution is more like an occupational hazard, rather than a “game changer”.

Means of
verifying the impact of Anti-Corruption interventions can range from the
simplest methods to the most complex. But methodologies need to be flexible and
adaptive in nature, not rigid. Impact can materialise quickly, or form over a
longer duration, normally outside the life of the programme. Therefore, it makes sense to think beyond
just programming and more about overall political and policy commitment to the
fight against corruption, as a major risk to all development efforts. Fundamentally, it is necessary to establish
what makes sense in any country context and work with, rather than against the
grain, with a long-term perspective.

In early 2018, the repatriation of the Abacha 2 Loot
US$322.5 million was well-publicised and remains in public view, as a result of
sustained monitoring by the UK funded MANTRA Project, implemented by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic
Justice (ANEEJ),under the
Anti-Corruption in Nigeria Programme (ACORN).
It is really encouraging that Nigerians continue
to scrutinise and debate the use of this money, primarily whether it should be used
or is being used for Conditional Cash
Transfers (CCT) to the poorest Nigerians, as part of the National Social
Investment Programme (NSIP). Most
recently, the National Assembly enquired about the use of budgetary allocations
to NSIP, rightly seeking clarification as part of their oversight role. Data and evidence generated by the MANTRA
Project, publicly contributed towards responding to the National Assembly on
CCT. The MANTRA Project was able to
enter this high-level dialogue in a constructive manner, at this critical time
of the COVID 19 response, when more than ever the poorest Nigerians need a
reliable form of basic support.

Therefore, in
thinking about what success looks like, I see a potential “game changer” in the
form of the MANTRA Project, which has contributed massively, in a short period
of time, towards increasing public awareness about the status of the Abacha 2
Loot. The Project is also promoting the concept of continuous civil society monitoring
of repatriated money, through a broad network of civil society organisations, with
a strong focus on sustainability. It is
important to note that there were numerous repatriations of stolen money to
Nigeria, which most Nigerians are not even aware of. In assessing the MANTRA Project, baseline
information is important, critical to which is the question: How many Nigerians
are aware of what happened to previous Abacha repatriations from Switzerland, totalling
some US$700 million over the past decade?
In fact, there was limited awareness of previous returns and Nigerians
would not have benefited to any real extent, due to a lack of transparency
around the handling of these repatriations. The MANTRA Project aims to fill
this gap. The protection of the Abacha 2
Loot comes as a direct result of the MANTRA Project mobilising citizens and the
willingness of ANEEJ to work constructively with the Governments of Nigeria, Switzerland
and the UK in establishing an arrangement to monitor how this money is disbursed
and managed, end-to-end.

Focusing
forward, the ground is fertile for further enhancing public scrutiny and
mobilising citizens in protecting repatriated funds. For example, Nigerians already have some
awareness of the Abacha 3 Loot, currently being negotiated for repatriation
from the US and Jersey. An unintended
result would be public interest in repatriated funds, expanding to other areas
of public sector financing and increasing demand for greater accountability
across the board.

The success of the MANTRA Project is drawn from basic
principles of good development practice:
effective communication; participatory approaches and promoting local ownership
and leadership etc. However, it is useful to reflect on how this innovative
intervention came to fruition. The MANTRA Project evolved through building trusting relationships
between likeminded development entrepreneurs, who had the ability to think
outside the box in identifying and exploiting emerging opportunities. Such key opportunities were the Global Forum
for Asset Recovery (GFAR) in Washington in December 2017, which promoted civil
society involvement in asset recovery and management; the timing of the repatriation
of the Abacha 2 Loot; ANEEJ securing a MoU with the Ministry of Justice and ANEEJ
promptly seeking to localise the GFAR Principles in Nigeria, with UK support.
In addition, the UK DFID helped in securing political backing through the
Office of the Vice President’s agreement to launch the MANTRA Project on
African Anti-Corruption Day in July 2018. This launch was instrumental in helping
the MANTRA Project to gain recognition and access. Obviously, predictability of funding was
another important element and the MANTRA Project secured a grant under the UK
funded Anti-Corruption in Nigeria Programme, which I managed, to commence a short
pilot which was later extended to December 2021.

The game
changing effect is demonstrating that US$322.5 million repatriated to Nigeria can
be used to benefit poor Nigerian households, with locally driven monitoring arrangements
(involving citizens) for ensuring transparency and accountability. The MANTRA Project has established what can
only be described as an army of 814 civil society monitors to provide oversight
of the distribution process, protecting the interests of poor beneficiaries. Whilst the MANTRA Project has identified
weaknesses in the distribution process, the priority is to help fix, rather
than to fixate, recognising the corrupt is a dominant contextual characteristic
in Nigeria.

The next step is
making the Grievance Redress Mechanism work which will help to further increase
the trust and confidence of beneficiaries and strengthen the voice and agency
of citizens to hold government to account. The MANTRA Project is helping to
harness the power of citizens to say no to bribery and corruption. I see this task being less for extremely poor
beneficiaries whose main preoccupation is survival, but more for the better off
and middle-class critics and policy makers who question the validity of cash transfers
and other social investment programmes, without rooting strongly and
consistently for the poorest in Nigerian society. Through the MANTRA Project, I have seen
greater awareness and attention to the needs of the poor amongst policy and
decision makers. The approach demonstrated
by the MANTRA Project could be replicated to achieve a multiplier effect. All social investment programmes could be
transformed overtime, if citizens continue to engage and see themselves as
active players, rather than passive beneficiaries or armchair critics. Sustainability
hinges on the extent to which the MANTRA Project can embed itself within
communities and encourage ordinary citizens to feel part of the process of
tackling any form of corruption that affects their lives. The energy currently driving the MANTRA Project
should endure, long after the ACORN Programme ends, if processes are locally owned
and championed by Nigerians. Positive life
changing results can be achieved through the MANTRA Project, which in my view is
what success looks like…ultimately.